The house behind the security fence in this photo was the closest I could find to the farmhouse I imagined for Parker’s grandparents, based on a photo purportedly of a young Bonnie and her cousins among some tall weeds. The pair seemed very wrapped up in the attention they received in the media. Unexpected Lessons from the Back Roads of the American Midwest, Dina Nayeri on James Salter's Sex Scenes and Hating. She told herself and her mother that Gibsland would give her another chance at happiness, that she and Barrow could stop running and settle there safely, outside of Texas but still close to Dallas. Tearing back the curtain of the legendary Bonnie and Clyde mythology, Christina Schwarz’ s “Bonnie” offers a surprising story - the grit, the poverty, the hopeless quality of their lives - in gorgeous prose. Cement City, where Emma Parker moved with her children to live with her parents and some of her adult siblings after her husband died, was harder to see through Bonnie’s eyes. Lori Cardille, Marin Ireland, By: by Atria Books. Most of us know pieces of their legend from stories and movies about crisscrossing America robbing banks and running from shoot outs. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free. I was hooked from the moment in the prologue when nearsighted Bonnie finds a pair of eyeglasses in a glove compartment that coincidentally correct her vision; the landscape comes into focus but of course she still cannot really see her situation with any clarity. The day I visited Rowena, the sky was a typical West Texas azure, a brilliant backdrop for huge, low-drifting clouds, and distinctly different from the persistent summer haze that was muffling Dallas. When Dave, his lazy, grease-stained boss at the eponymous dealership Smiling Dave's sends him to repossess a Cadillac, Ed finally gets the chance to escape his miserable life. In the cemetery, on a rise slightly south of the town, former residents were arranged according to religious affiliation. I was bored reading about the life she spent on the run with Clyde after the two embarked on their crime spree during the Great Depression. The big cement factories for which the area was named, with their harsh, pervasive noises and smells, are no more. In 1910, when Parker was born, Rowena was a small but thriving new town on a railroad line about 30 miles from San Angelo, populated mostly by German and Czech cotton farmers from Central Texas. Her pretty face still hangs like a watchful queen on the posters on the walls of the town’s Baptist church, the police station, and in the high school. Please try again. The resulting shootout left two officers dead and ruined Blanche’s hopes for a fresh start for Buck. Weaving together past and present in a small Midwestern town, Schwarz beautifully conjures the emotional labyrinth of a marriage on the brink of collapse, and a history of love and revenge. By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's. Unlike most fictional retellings of the story of Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow, author Christina Schwarz doesn't stray far from facts. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. This building’s irregular rock siding excited me, because I remembered similar siding on a pair of houses in Rowena. Drowning Ruth: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club), 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love: A Novel, Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game, Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde.